Nine-Year-Old Boy Leads The Way As Colorado Town Legalizes Snowball Fights

posted by Bill Galluccio -
Dec 4, 2018

When a nine-year-old boy from Severance, Colorado learned that it was illegal for kids in the small farming town to throw snowballs, he decided to do something about it. Throwing snowballs has been illegal since 1920, when an ordinance was passed which banned people from throwing missiles at each other. The broad language used in the law banned just about all thrown projectiles, including snowballs.

When Dane Best learned about this, he knew he had to get the outdated law changed. Best had just returned from a class trip to city hall, where he and his classmates were given a lesson on how the city amends and changes the laws, and he decided to take the knowledge to update the ordinance.

Best worked with his parents and Mayor Don McLeod to create a presentation on changing the 98-year-old ordinance, which Best got to deliver to Trustees during a recent council meeting.

“The children of Severance want the opportunity to have a snowball fight like the rest of the world,” told the Board of Trustees. “The law was created many years ago. Today’s kids need a reason to play outside.”

The Board unanimously voted in favor of the change and Best got to throw the first legal snowball since 1920, as a crowd cheered him on.

“I thought it was crazy,” Best told Fox31. “Little kids should be allowed to throw snowballs at each other.”